Photo by Alexander Savin via Flickr Creative Commons
A Dallas-based mahjong company has been accused cultural appropriation online, CBS reports.
The Mahjong Line is a company that has redesigned traditional mahjong tiles to make the game appealing to “the stylish masses,” according to The Cut. The company is run by three women, none of whom are of Chinese descent, named Kate LaGere, Annie O’Grady, and Bianca Watson.
LaGere felt that “traditional tiles … did not reflect the fun that was had when playing with her friends,” The Cut reports. So she enlisted O’Grady and Watson to help her design a set that would match her style and personality.
So far, the company has created 5 different sets. The traditional tiles have been replaced with “Western” images and Arabic numerals, according to CBS. All five sets sell for prices between $325 and $425.
Tweets criticizing the company have now gone viral. Many have said the women are “gentrifying” mahjong.
“My culture is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It is a product of thousands of years of tradition and history,” Jeremy Lee wrote on Twitter. “My culture not some cheap coloring book that can be filled-in and be ‘made pretty’ by the standards of privileged teenyboppers.”
Joey Ng said the sets were problematic as they centered “the White rebrand as stylish luxury and the Chinese original as lacking personality of style.”
The company issued an apology on their Instagram. They said their intent was “to inspire and engage with a new generation of American mahjong players,” but they recognized that they failed “to pay proper homage to the game’s Chinese heritage.”
“Using words like ‘refresh’ were hurtful to many and we are deeply sorry,” the statement read.
They concluded the statement by saying they are “open to constructive criticism.” The company is supposedly working with “those who can provide further insight to the game’s traditions and roots in both Chinese and American cultures.”
According to The Cut, the company appears to have taken down their website. It is unclear whether they will continue producing and designing mahjong sets.
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